Tweet of the Day

From Betsey Stevenson:

There was not a big increase in discouraged workers. What happened, was Census found a bunch of old people we had assumed died.

What!?!?!  You guys are still alive?  We thought you’d died years ago.


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17 Responses to “Tweet of the Day”

  1. Gravatar of Cthorm Cthorm
    3. February 2012 at 09:52

    I thought you weren’t going to embrace twitter?

  2. Gravatar of Alan Katz Alan Katz
    3. February 2012 at 10:34

    I think this explains some voter fraud obsession, too…

  3. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    3. February 2012 at 11:47

    Cthorm, Tyler Cowen linked to this. I never go into Twitter without directions.

    Alan, Let’s hope they’re not still voting. 🙂

  4. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    3. February 2012 at 12:15

    The Fed wants us dead, but somehow we keep plugging along.

  5. Gravatar of Morgan Warstler Morgan Warstler
    3. February 2012 at 12:44

    Shouldn’t we be able to track their SS checks?

  6. Gravatar of Morgan Warstler Morgan Warstler
    3. February 2012 at 15:11

    http://blog.american.com/2012/02/why-the-official-8-3-percent-unemployment-rate-is-a-phony-number-and-what-it-means-for-obamas-reelection/

  7. Gravatar of Niklas Blanchard Niklas Blanchard
    3. February 2012 at 15:57

    Scott Sumner on Twitter?!

  8. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    3. February 2012 at 18:34

    Niklas, Nope.

    Morgan, He doesn’t mention that some of it is the decline in illegal immigration, a policy supported by conservatives.

  9. Gravatar of Morgan Warstler Morgan Warstler
    3. February 2012 at 20:23

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/implied-unemployment-rate-rises-115-spread-propaganda-number-surges-30-year-high

    I suspect that “juked stats” plays well with independents for a long time to come. I won’t be surprised if zerohedge gains 50% readership this year… 100% if they talk slow with small words in some of their posts.

    Then again, I also think unemployment can be 7% and Obama still loses, for the same reason Gore did.

    Obama will not actually be trusted on the economy… he violated the rule: modern Dems have to cut social services to prove they are serious about business.

    At crunch time, we don’t worry about the poor.

    This is why why my gut says many in the middle class were quietly satisfied by Romney’s “gaffe.”

    Shit rolls downhill, and guilt doesn’t play in a recession.

  10. Gravatar of Willie Sutton Willie Sutton
    4. February 2012 at 12:45

    Morgan W.,

    Hope you read ZeroHedge’s latest post
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/explaining-yesterdays-seasonally-adjusted-nonfarm-payroll-beat

    and can tell us what’s wrong with his argument.

  11. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    4. February 2012 at 19:07

    Morgan and Willie, I can’t make any sense out of that post. A negative unemployment rate? How could you get that unless your survey found a negative number of unemployed people?

  12. Gravatar of Morgan Warstler Morgan Warstler
    4. February 2012 at 23:10

    Willie,

    If the labor force participation % is really lower than its been in 30 years, unemployment %’s that are “better” are juked stats.

    How we count slice and dice 1.5M new people or 1.2M drop outs, won’t / can’t get around that fact.

    When labor force participation goes UP and unemployment goes DOWN month to month those will be good days.

    Until then…

  13. Gravatar of Willie Sutton Willie Sutton
    5. February 2012 at 03:52

    Scott and Morgan,

    I’m not interested in good and bad days. I’m interested in understanding how reasonable BLS assumptions and methods are. ZH makes the point that BLS reported estimates for January are too sensitive to minor changes in assumptions. You may think it is a waste of time to go through the details of BLS report released last Friday, but I hope you are worried about the “garbage in, gospel out” elephant in most blogs and policy research on economic issues.

  14. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    5. February 2012 at 06:07

    Williw, I certainly agree there are big inaccuracies in the data; I said I couldn’t understand that post. I think you misunderstood me.

  15. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    5. February 2012 at 06:07

    I meant Willie, not Williw.

  16. Gravatar of Mark A. Sadowski Mark A. Sadowski
    5. February 2012 at 21:26

    But Scott, I’m not dead yet!

    “The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
    [a man puts a body on the cart]

    Large Man with Dead Body: Here’s one.
    The Dead Collector: That’ll be ninepence.

    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
    The Dead Collector: What?

    Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There’s your ninepence.
    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.

    The Dead Collector: ‘Ere, he says he’s not dead.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.

    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not.
    The Dead Collector: He isn’t.

    Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m getting better.

    Large Man with Dead Body: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
    The Dead Collector: Well, I can’t take him like that. It’s against regulations.

    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I don’t want to go on the cart.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
    The Dead Collector: I can’t take him.

    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I feel fine.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, do me a favor.

    The Dead Collector: I can’t.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won’t be long.

    The Dead Collector: I promised I’d be at the Robinsons’. They’ve lost nine today.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Well, when’s your next round?

    The Dead Collector: Thursday.
    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I think I’ll go for a walk.

    Large Man with Dead Body: You’re not fooling anyone, you know. Isn’t there anything you could do?
    The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I feel happy. I feel happy.
    [the Dead Collector glances up and down the street furtively, then silences the Body with his a whack of his club]
    L
    arge Man with Dead Body: Ah, thank you very much.
    The Dead Collector: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Right.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGFXGwHsD_A

  17. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    7. February 2012 at 07:16

    Mark, Any Monty Python fan can’t be all bad. 🙂

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